Love Notes, Story Time, and the Power of Words

Nothing can quite make you feel worthwhile like a colorful card with atrocious grammar from a nine year old.

The classroom is chaos, like usual before break time, and Nadine sneaks over to my table at the back of the room, pigtails swinging down her back. She brings out her hand from behind her to show a bright blue card, handing it to me while looking up with a shy grin. Across the top is scrawled “Well come to Cape Town!” and there’s a blonde princess demurely grinning in front of some palm trees.

“Aw, Nadine is this for me?” I ask, getting an overdose of warm fuzzies from head to toe. She nods and gives me a hug before rushing off again to head out for break. After telling her how good of an artist she was my first day at school there’s been a constant stream of new pictures and cards from her each week. With each new drawing she looks up at me with proud eyes while receiving praise for her latest work.

I’ve been volunteering a few days each week at a local elementary school for the past month or so and have been loving (almost) every moment of it. Ms Tziavasi’s 3rd grade class has an overwhelming 38 kids and there is rarely a moment of quiet and order at any point in the day. Many come from rough backgrounds such as druggie parents, neglect, no food at home, or live in an area of high gang violence. They are a mix of coloured, Indian, black, and Muslim. But the labels mean nothing, they’re just a bunch of loud, normal kids.

Each day after lunch the kids gather on the mat in front and I read out loud from a chapter book called “Cool!” The kids have gotten really into it and argue together about whether the lead character will ever come out of his coma. My favorite part of the day though is when I call them back one by one to read to me. Their faces light up when they hear their names called and all too often they crowd around asking “when is it my turn?!” or ask to stay in during lunch to read. More than anything I use the time to encourage them as much as possible. They absolutely love the individual attention and usually come away glowing, proudly displaying a smiley sticker.

It seems like such a simple thing, telling each of them “good job!” or admiring how well they’re doing. But the impact of encouragement is something I’m learning to admire. I once heard the quote “people most often become what they’re told.” Tell someone they’re worthless enough times, soon enough they’ll believe it. Tell a kid they’re smart and special, they start having more confidence. Working at the school I’m constantly blown away by how much words of encouragement and small acts of love really make a difference in how people see themselves. I’m so incredibly grateful for my background with loving, encouraging parents because now I’m starting to realize how much that is a privilege and sadly not always the norm for kids. While I come home each day from school feeling pretty exhausted, it’s all worth it getting to spend time with such incredible kids. It’s funny, they’re the students but sometimes it feels like I’m learning more from them than they are from me.